Different Narrative Techniques in More-Than-Human Personas

More-than-human personas are a novel method that extends beyond traditional human-centred design methods by including non-human species as stakeholders in the design process. Research on how to write more-than-human personas is still limited but, to date, there exist two contrasting templates – 1) factual biological and 2) anthropomorphic templates. Drawing from a workshop that engaged 28 professionals, this study examines the affordances, challenges, and broader implications of using these distinct personas. The result shows that anthropomorphic personas support fostering empathy, while factual personas provide critical ecological insights for decision-making. This paper makes various contributions. First, it highlights the role of non-human stakeholders in HCI and their importance in creating sustainable technologies and systems. Second, it advances persona theory and practice, which is a well-established framework within the HCI community, into the more-than human domains. Thereby it inspires more inclusive design thinking and practice within HCI and positions more-than-human personas as a tool for navigating ethical and ecological complexities, provoking novel conversations in the HCI community. Moreover, it highlights opportunities for future research by emphasising that, given the complexity of ecosystems, the persona method might need to be further developed.